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Gold for Malakhov at European Rapid Ch

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage
Malakhov wins European Rapid ChampionshipAfter a very successful World Cup tournament, Vladimir Malakhov managed to keep his top form this weekend. The 29-year-old physicist from Russia won the European Rapid Championship with 11.5/13, beating big favourites such as Gashimov, Ivanchuk and Shirov. Update: games added.

The 9th European Rapid Championship took place December 19 & 20 in Warsaw, Poland. It was open to all players representing one of the ECU federations (FIDE Zones 1.1 to 1.9).

It was sponsored by Amplico Life S.A. and organized by the Polish Chess Federation, the Torwar Sports Centre and the Polonia Warsaw Chess Club under the patronage of the City Office of Warsaw, the Marshal Office of the Mazovian Voivodeship and the Central District of Warsaw.

Venue was the Torwar Show Hall, which is primarily used for music concerts, ice hockey and other indoor sports. It is the home of the hockey team UHKS Mazowsze. Some of the biggest popstars including Placebo, Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden, Depeche Mode, R.E.M., Simply Red, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, KoRn, The Cure, Rihanna, Mark Knopfler and Alicia Keys have performed here as well.

European Rapid Championship

The venue also hosted the 2007 European Figure Skating Championships | Photo Beax, Wikipedia



The tournament was a 13-round Swiss. The rate of play was 15 minutes plus 10 seconds increment per move. Eight rounds were played on Saturday; five on Sunday. The first prize of € 4,000 went to Vladimir Malakhov who scored an amazing 11.5 out of 13. He won all of his games on Saturday which included important victories with Black against Ivanchuk in round 7 and with White against Gashimov in round 8. On Sunday Malakhov drew with Dreev, Bartel, Movsesian and he defeated Krasenkow and Shirov (in the last round, with Black) to become the deserved winner in Warsaw.

The silver medal went to Vassily Ivanchuk, who only lost to Malakhov. Radoslaw Wojtaszek took bronze after tiebreaks, finishing on 10.5/13 together with Alexei Dreev, Daniel Fridman and Sergei Movsesian. Update: Below you'll find all games of the winner; the complete game file (PGN) can be downloaded below.

All 13 games of Malakhov



Game viewer by ChessTempo


European Rapid Ch 2009 | Final Standings (top 30)

European Rapid Ch 2009 Final Standings



European Rapid Championship

The playing hall of the European Rapid Championship...



European Rapid Championship

...and another one but now with a fisheye lens



uropean Rapid Championship

A tournament for young & old



Malakhov wins European Rapid Championship

L-R Anna Muzychuk - best woman; Vladimir Malakhov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Radoslaw Wojtaszek - medal winners; Lukasz Kalinowski - president of Amplico Life (main sponsor)



Malakhov wins European Rapid Championship

Vladimir Malakhov clinches gold in Warsaw



Photos by Piotr Gilarski



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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.

Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.

Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.

As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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